How Does Personal Injury Protection in Auto Insurance Work?

If you were involved in a motor vehicle accident in Florida that left you with injuries severe enough to warrant a hospital visit, you may have been overcharged for your treatment. People whose insurance companies paid personal injury protection benefits to hospitals and treatment centers should receive an adjusted bill from the medical center with reduced charges.

However, according to some consumers, their hospitals have billed them at the original, higher rate, and may be keeping the difference as profit.

What is Personal Injury Protection in Auto Insurance?

Personal injury protection insurance is also known as no-fault insurance, and allows people who have been injured in car accidents to receive compensation for lost wages and medical expenses. Although this insurance is optional in many states, sixteen states including Florida require drivers to purchase at least the minimum level of personal injury protection.

Personal injury protection auto insurance provides coverage to you and any passengers if you are involved in a car accident as a driver. It may also cover any injuries you sustain if you are in an accident as a passenger in someone else’s car, or if you are hit by a car while walking, jogging, or bicycling.

What Does Personal Injury Protection in Florida Cover?

Personal injury protection in Florida may cover many types of costs associated with car accidents. The insurance may cover the cost of necessary medical procedures, as well as rehabilitation following the accident.

Expenses covered by personal injury protection in auto insurance may include the costs of operations, hospitalizations, and ongoing professional medical or in-home care. In the case of death, the insurance may also pay for funeral expenses, as well as accidental death benefits.

For people who are injured enough to require rehabilitation or need time to recover after the accident, personal injury protection may also provide compensation for lost wages, as well as covering some of the costs of in-home non-medical services, such as childcare or house cleaning.

Although personal injury protection may not cover the entirety of the costs related to the accident, it will usually cover them up to a certain pre-set threshold. In Florida, while drivers are required to purchase personal injury coverage, the law does not require this coverage to pay the entirety of their potential medical bills. Instead, insurance related to personal injuries is only required to cover 80 percent of a patient’s medical bills and 60 percent of their lost wages. However, it is only required to cover these costs up to $10,000.

Victims who require medical care after a Florida car accident should receive hospital bills that have already been adjusted for their insurance company’s contributions. However, some consumers who have been injured in no-fault states claim that these bills have included the original, non-adjusted costs.

How Much Personal Injury Protection Do I Need?

Whether or not personal injury protection is mandatory is decided by each individual state. Sixteen states including Florida require drivers to have at least a minimum level of personal injury protection in auto insurance. The states that require personal injury protection insurance are called no-fault states, or states where drivers are required to have insurance to pay for their own injuries from a car accident, regardless of who caused the accident to occur.

What is No-Fault Insurance?

No-fault insurance is insurance that covers accidents caused by a car accident, regardless of whether the insured party caused the crash or not. Rather than relying on another driver’s insurance to pay for any medical expenses, lost wages, or home care, no-fault insurance ensures that the driver is covered for any injuries related to car accidents, no matter how the accident occurred.

This prevents cases where a car accident is caused by someone without insurance, and the other party is not able to receive compensation for their medical care through them.

However, some victims of car accidents caused by other people’s negligence say that Florida’s no-fault car accident laws disproportionately affect victims. One woman whose medical insurance didn’t entirely cover the costs of her procedures claims that she owes tens of thousands of dollars related to her recovery, while the driver who caused the accident that injured her didn’t have to pay out anything.

In tort states, or states that are not no-fault, there is a process to determine who is at fault for an accident and who is responsible for paying for any medical expenses. Often, one party will be found to be partially or mostly at fault, and the other party will also be found to have some level of fault. The burden of paying for applicable injuries and medical expenses will then be determined based on what percentage of fault each party is determined to be responsible for.

What Do I Do If I Receive a Non-Reduced Hospital Bill After a Motor Vehicle Accident?

According to some consumers who have received a non-adjusted bill from their hospital following a car accident, their hospitals may be accepting personal injury protection payouts from their insurance companies while still charging victims the original rate. These overcharges may be being pocketed by hospitals who hope that car accident victims fail to notice the billing discrepancy.

If you have experienced a motor vehicle accident within the last five years and were treated at a Florida hospital, you may be able to hire a personal injury protection lawyer if your hospital accepted money from your insurance company but still billed you at your original rate.

How Do I Find a Personal Injury Protection Lawyer?

If you have already suffered from injuries or lost wages due to a car accident, you shouldn’t also have to struggle to find an experienced attorney to represent you. Top Class Actions has partnered with personal injury protection lawyers to make finding legal representation easy for victims of car accidents. Speaking with a qualified attorney about the details of your case may be the first step towards pursuing compensation.

Join a Free PIP Overcharging Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

You may qualify for this investigation under the following circumstances:

• You were injured in a motor vehicle accident within the past 5 years;
• You were treated at a hospital in Florida;
• Your insurance company paid PIP insurance benefits for your hospital treatment;
• You received a bill from the hospital based on its original charges rather than for reduced charges.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.